lec 8

SOCA01-Lecture 8
Families cont’d:
-Functionalism and various aspects of functionalism:
-several dimensions of socialization
-regulation of sexual activity
-social placement
-material and emotional security
-economic cooperation:
-family is a place where you find particularism and affect (the family provides emotional support) as said by
Parsons
-there are rewards of affect when raising children
-the family is based on emotions
-people w/n the family relate to each other emotionally
-therefore, the family is different from the larger society
-family is treated differently and given better treatment
-the larger society is treated w/ universalism/impersonality
-the family pools their resources and the parents support their children
-relationships b/w parents (esp. mothers) and their children are very close
-mothers can divorce their husbands and never see them again but the children and their mothers usually don’t
break up
-parents support children emotionally, physically, and materially
-sometimes children support their parents in old age
-there is also sexual division of labour
-not as important as it used to be
-w/ introduction of modern appliances, the difference between the strength of men and women is not as
important
-complementaritydivision of labour, they complement each other
Critical evaluation:
-functional approach overlooks the diversity of the family
-critiques say other institutions can play the same role as the family
-tends to overlook the problems of married life
-ex. violence and conflict is also common in the family
-the family is a paradox (both positive and negative characteristics)
-functionalists emphasize the positive
-ex. Japan 1970
-20% of Japanese women haven’t married by the age of 30
-today, 40% of Japanese women haven’t married by the age of 30
Why? Patriarchy; the Japanese family is more patriarchal
-North America is not so patriarchal
-the marriage rate is going down
-poor people decide to stay single
-women want to pursue their career
-there is also the option of in vitro fertilization -men are not as inclined to marriage b/c they say family law is biased against men
-men are denied visitation rights etc.
-some men try to get around this by pre-nups
-pre-nuptial agreement in which divorce takes place and divide assets according to the pre-nup
falling into trouble b/c some people hide their assets
Conflict and feminist theorist approach to the family:
- theoretical approach that looks at the way family life perpetuates inequality=social reproduction of inequality
-the family is a situation in which inequality is established
-ex. people born in a poor family usually remain poor
-people inherit the social standing of their parents (although there can be some upward mobility)
-Engle’s book: origins of the family
-says the origin of the family is more out of the need of higher class men to transmit their assets to their
sons
-therefore, the family accumulates wealth and produces the class structure for all
-functionalist say the family gives people an identity and that they need it
-conflict theorists say that the family is economic based
nd
2 defect w/ the family according to conflict theorists and feminists:
-patriarchy
-the family promotes patriarchy
-men have sexual control over women, therefore, the family turns women into sexual and economic property of
men
-refers to the traditional nuclear family
-reached peak at 1950s and is now declining
-a century ago the earnings of the wife belonged to the husband
-today, women still bear most of the work raising the children and housework
-Canadian women with at least 1 child under 5 today spend 5.3 hours a day doing housework
- husbands spends 3 hours a day
3 problem:
-note conflict theorists and feminists are critical of the family
-family is under the heading of race and ethnicity
-therefore, the family perpetuates racial and ethnic categories and these persist over time b/c people tend to
marry others like themselves
-the family props up the racial and ethnic hierarchy
-people do tend to marry w/n their own group= Endogamy
-if you marry outside of your group=Exogamy
-trends w/n a multicultural society like Canadatowards more intermarriage
-ex. Particularly true of Japanese Canadians ~50% of them are intermarried
-they don’t come to Canada anymore (stopped coming around the 1900)
-also applies to Jews
-some Euro-Canadians b/c Japanese and Jewish Canadians will marry these Euro-Canadians
Critique of these theories:
-the family has many faults according to conflict and feminist approach -so what can replace the family?
-when communist revolution took place in the soviet union it abolished the family
-always been this hostility towards the family in their politics (specifically by Marx and Engles)
-then it had to reinstate it b/c things didn’t work out
-children were uncontrollable, did not do well in school
-the family is extra important when it comes to socializing children
-the family perpetuates racial and ethnic hierarchies:
-conflict and feminists see this as negative
-the family is criticized for maintaining racial and ethnic identity
-BUT conflict and feminist theorists will support multiculturalism
-therefore, they are not consistent rather they are contradictory
-problem w/ patriarchy argument in connection w/ housework:
-shows up w/ women doing more of the housework
-but have to take into consideration that men spend more time at their jobs
-therefore, when you take that into consideration, the contribution to the household is pretty equal
-the family may thus be patriarchal in other respects but not in this case
-men put more hours in work
-conflict theorists talk about the 19 century when treating women as property of men
-today, the family is based on legal and constitutional equality
-the bias you find in conflict and feminist theoryanti-family bias
- has not produced a viable alternative to the family
-apparently we have a psychological need to know where we come from (our ancestry)
-ex. Many adopted children when told they were adopted when older, what happened to them is that they
will spend years trying to track down their biological parents
-the need to find that parent can be powerful
-a group of adopted children formed a group and approached the Ontario government and requested that they
make it law that people who give children up for adoption cannot hide their identity
-when people give their children up for adoption they don’t want them to know their identity
-some people said that people will not give their children up for adoption and more men will stop donating sperm
if that became law
-thus, it was not made into law
-therefore suggests that other family forms that exclude biological parents fail to meet these needs
-conflict theorists and feminist theorists fail to take into account that “blood is thicker than water”
-therefore, cannot just get rid of the family
Stages of family life:
2 types:
1. Arran